The 'Hobbies'and 'Listening' threads inspired me to start this one. Come on everyone, share what you are currently reading.
I will start the thread off:

I am currently reading Einstein by Walter Isaacson. The author had access to previously unreleased personal letters and papers. He has done an excellent job in revealing the wonderful man behind the science(as well as discussing the theories) and the politics of the time.

Note: the footnotes are almost as long as the book.

Earlier this year I got back into reading sci-fi novels.

I re-read Arthur C Clarke's fantastic "The City and the Stars", followed by Philip K Dick's "Penultimate Truth".

Then I started Alfred bester's "The Demolished Man" but I got half way through and got very bored.

Haven't read since!

What a great idea for a thread M.

Im not currently reading anything, but the last recent book was 'Jaws'.
It was one of those 'cant put down' books for me. So much better than the film.

I have read all those books you mentioned, Alex. The odd thing about your post is that I actually reread The Demolished Man a couple of months ago, having not read it in years.

Thanks K.

I see you left out Midge's book. Was it that forgettable ?

Oh I forgot to mention - I read Mike Oldfield's autobiography "Changeling" over the summer. Very inspiring and interesting.

That's a funny coincidence

I'm just in love with City and the Stars. I could read it endlessly.

Sadly the Demolished Man just didn't grab my attention. I might finiish it, but I'm more tempted to see what other interesting books there are in the SF Masterworks series.

Just the book, not the way it was read.

Theres a lot of Foxxy book titles but this ones very Bowie like. I could imagine Oldfields being an interesting read, given hes music, personal life, and hobbies such as flying.

Yeah, it is an engrossing read. The focus of the book though is mostly on his lifelong battle with panic attacks. Music almost comes secondary, as he started writing as therapy and escapism.

The majority of the book is written about the early part of his life, up to and the recording of Tubular bells, then the success and pressure that follows. The 80s, 90s and beyond are sadly only skimmed over in the last couple of chapters - but I guess there just isn't as much to tell.

On a regular basis
When Skies Are Grey (Everton Fanzine )
Cycling Plus
New Scientist
(looking forward to this month's lot .postal atrike permitting !)
Bookwise
"Je François Villon" Jean Teulé
"Cité de la joie" Dominique La Pierre
"Il Corriere colombano " Massimo Carlotto (master of Italian noir )
Plus
FC Nuremberg fan's forum
I'm having Irvine Welsh withdrawal symptons Anyone know if he is due to have anything out soon ?

Interesting Thread

For me, this week its
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and
Isiah (Old Testament) and
Management and Organisational Strategy

nothing if not diverse

Instantly. I read it once.
First ten years? - fascinating.

What happened next?

I’m currently reading two books at the moment -

‘Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976’ by Barney Hoskyns

A period of music that I have zero interest in, but the stories and characters (Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eagles, Jackson Browne, CSNY) make it a really fascinating book – how they all go from getting in the back of a truck to play at coffee bars to owning Lear jets and filling stadiums.

‘Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll’ by Julian Cope.

Yes THAT Julian Cope. It’s about how post-WW2 western culture infected Japanese culture, the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock 'n' roll renegades of the 1960s and 70s. Very, very funny.

Just finished JG Ballard's "Kingdom Come", my first Ballard (see separate thread)

now just started "A History of Love" by Nicole Krauss

occasionally pick up Himalaya by Michael Palin . .not compulsive reading but my Dad gave it to me cos he had two. I like the idea of the travelogue...

Robert Llewelyn* : Brother Nature. 10p from a charry!

[*Yes, that's Kryten.]

Now there's a man with impeccable taste. I'm reading Japrocksampler also. Much more background information than Krautrocksampler & better for it.

It's a fascinating read about a genre I know very little about, but I like the way Julian writes, upfront & honest with no punches pulled.

I also have The Modern Antiquarian by Julian. If you like Stone Circles & Paganism stuff, then you'll dig this.

Cheers Ilektrik!

I love the way he writes – it’s very energetic, not bogged down in too much fact (the history of Japan in about 3 pages!), just enough to give you a taste, like he says – a ‘sampler’ of Japrock. I confess I’ve not read anything at all by Cope but I would really like to read Krautrocksampler, however copies currently go for stupid amounts on EBay. Here’s hoping the success of Japrocksampler means it gets a re-print. Along with the ones you mentioned, I will have to get a few others of his based on this – I hear his autobiography’s good too.

The parts re Ultravox/Visage were my favorites. The solo career stuff not so much.
And the overstated bits about his 'romantic' encounters were somewhat overemphasized :rolleyes:

i'm currently reading 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov, and also Eric Clapton's autobiography. The latter is the most powerful autobiography I've ever read - the amount of personal tragedy and self inflicted problems he's had and talks quite clearly about is astonishing, and actually quite levelling in many respects. The stuff he's come through makes the day to day things I find annoying incredibly trivial in comparison.

It is getting tremendous reviews here. Will pick it next time I am at the bookstore.

My favorite reads are autobiographys, and the odd bit of science fiction.
With some authors you get the best of both.

Im looking forward to reading Midge Ure's soon and hope to get Mike Oldfields too.

I also have a soft spot for science faction.

Then you must read Richard Dawkins latest, The God Delusion. I read it about 3 months ago. Not all of his arguments were persuasive but still very fascinating.

Going by memory here, but isn't 'The God Delusion' hes latest one.

See my previous post

Oh right!!

The promotion Richard has done for this book is the most hes done for any.
It covered more countrys and took up more time on TV and radio than sometimes the work hes put in for three or four books together.
It really has been like a world tour similar to any big music bizz tour.

I like to hear that. With the exception of a few science authors (Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawkings, and the late Carl Sagan come to mind immediately), science and science related books are never in the fore-front and never get the publicity.

Definitely music biographies. I've just finished reading:

Deborah Curtis' Touching From A Distance.I strongly recommend this one. It's very intriguing and it's one of those that you don't stop reading until you read the last word. There's also a curious photo of Ian, the last picture taken before he departed. You can clearly see the madness in his pale blue eyes.

Now onto David Nolan's Bernard Sumner Confusion. This one's not official but still interesting. Some curious photos too of Barney playing the melodica and Martin Hannett, like a mad scientist, showing Barney a few things on the ARP Omni.

They've become really trendy in 2007!

Chris

Gee. All you lot seem to be reading some good stuff. I've recently finished the Michael J Fox biography which I recommend, Cesar Milan (That dog trainer / therapist from Discovery channel) about how to get closer to your doggy -(Just bought 2 King Charlie Cavs) and this minute finished a book by a local author who I knew before she died. The book, called "Us Kids" recounts the experiences of a young girl (the author) growing up in the 40's & 50's in Ladywood Birmingham. I had the book as a wedding present in 1999 but have just come across it in our attic. Carole Stafford, the author, died about 5 years ago. I wish I had read it earlier as it was funny, emotional and gave some insight into what life was like for poor slum dwellers then. It was a bit like an English version of Angela's Ashes (the Irish film) - but better.
Wish I had read it when Carole was alive as she had a very interesting life and was a very colourful character.
(God, I do go on don't I?)

That Cesar Milan is quite popular here. Doesn't he have his own television show?

I read that dog book Me and Morley about the world's supposed worst behaved dog.

Yep! "The Dog Whisperer" is on Discovery Animals if I remember rightly. Incredible way with dogs and people this fella.

Anyone reading Bowie?

Currently reading David Buckley's Strange Fascination David Bowie: The Definitive Story.Based on a Doctoral thesis neatly archived at the University of Liverpool. David produces both a fascinating and definitive account of the Icon. Just what the title says!

Chris

Imagine that! Being able to fulfill the requirements of a PhD with a thesis on Bowie. Does it mention the title of the dissertation?

My favourite poet - TS Eliot

Available here - a great resource.

http://www.online-literature.com/ts-eliot/

Funny, much as I very rarely download music, I'm quite happy to download literature. Somehow I have no problem with reading poems and books off sheets of A4 paper. Why is that?

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

If I may quote/promote: "A fascinating glimpse of what would happen to the earth if humans vanished today, forever [...] How quickly would all traces of our presence be erased?"

It reminds me in places of some of The Quiet Man stories, of an overgrown city.

FINALLY !! I FINISHED!! 551 pages!! Plus almost 100 pages of footnotes and references.

Einstein, mathematics, quantum physics, personal anecdotes and political issues. A fascinating read for anyone who is curious about Einstein.


Next up (tomorrow): Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert/Kevin J Anderson

Been reading the Argos Catalogue recently, just to see what 5.1 sound systems are around etc.

It doesn't exactly say in the book. Just a thesis on David Bowie. Yep he actually did that and got a doctorate for it. Amazing!

Chris

Absolutely incredible. Really.

Finished this one last night. To all fellow Dune fanatics....another winner (aren't they all, though? ). There is one more in the stores now.

'On The Road' by Kerouac

Read it many, many years ago and thought it was one of the dullest books I have ever read.

Over the years though I've read books about the real life characters the book is based on, and re-reading this with what I know now is making the book a far better read than before.

Just finished "Brother Nature" by Robert Llewelyn.
Very good. There are some Douglas Adams moments in there.

But I'm really into hard-SF.
Apart from the obvious stuff like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, etc, I tend to go for Peter F Hamilton (hence the NerveJam name), and Larry Niven (The Ringworld books are amazing)

(I think I've pretty much exhausted all the Clarke/Asimov stuff.)

I don't really do fantasy books, though.

The 'Mars' books by Kim Stanley Robinson are pretty good. Very technical and well thought out.

Yeah. I've read "RED MARS" by KSR. Good stuff.

I'm currently wading through something a bit different: "A Clockwork Orange". Bit heavy going, simply due to the language used. I suspect that I'll get bored before I finish it. Life's too short.

Tried to get through Clockwork Orange myself many years ago. Too dependent on the glossary to flow so I gave up. There are only 2 books I have given up midway and this was the first.*


* the other was Salman Rushdie's 'banned' novel.

I'm reading 'My Boring Ass life' by Kevin Smith - entertaining and kind of fun in a very odd and uncomfortably detailed way...

Hi maryann,

A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite books - don't worry about the glossary! Just try and get through the first chapter without it; just read it as you would a normal book, don't worry about the slang, you'll pretty much guess what they mean anyway.

My mid 80s UK edition didn't come with a glossary. Penguin put one in because people complained, but at Burgess' request, they removed it.

For legal reasons blahblahblah, you people across the pond managed to keep hold of the glossary (having said all that, I think it was reinstated in the Penguin Classics edition after Burgess' death - not sure though)

An absolutely superb book - the second part is incredible!

Just started reading Gary Numans Praying To The Aliens. At the speed I read it'll take me 6 months.

Peter

You are probably right about not needing the glossary as I have seen the movie so many times I practically know the dialogue. It was a long time ago that I picked up (and put down) the book, but now that you have mentioned it I will add it to my reading list.

The glossary thing is quite funny. Reminds me of when I went to see 'Dune' in the theatres... they actually handed out a glossary for those that never read the novels!

Grrr. Dune Movie. Sting.

A new Russian television series is now in Finnish television.

I was reading Gavin Pretor-Pinney's The cloudspotter's guide, but after 50 pages jokes become repetitive & tired, and I started to read a GPS guide instead. Now I am trying to finnish with Cloudspotter (because I never leave once started books unread, in case that it gets better in the last pages - which, to my memory, has never happened though). The book looks good in its black & white artistic outlook, but is actually not-so-good; more than a guide it is a collection of short stories.

Agreed.
Sting was more tolerable in Quadrophenia.

I'm currently re-reading Junky by William S. Burroughs. A damn fine book!

Must ask you as I can't wait to read the book for the answer: Is the Heaven 17 reference actually in the book?

i'm addicted to audio books and then listening to them on iPod, etc. i liked these a lot (many i listen(ed) to:

pynchon's against the day, new york trilogy, by paul auster, all of zecharia sitchen's books, j.g. ballard's crash and concrete island, aldous huxley's brave new world, spook county, and pattern recognition, by william gibson, graham hancock's underworld: the mysterious origins of civilisation, peter newell's the hole book, broken government, simon ford's wreckers of civilsation, william golding's lord of the flies, 1984 and animal farm by george orwell, mothman prophesies, john keel, eric van lustbader's bourne betrayal, naomi klein's the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism, power, faith and fantasy, by michael b. oren, black swan, from nassim nicholas taleb, girls of riyadh, by rajaa alsanea

I used to read alot of books at one stage... not so many now.... my favourite author is John Irving "Widow for one year" is brilliant!

Indeed it is. I have read this and Naked Lunch again this year.

Currently enjoying another journey through His Dark Materials, having in between completed a fascinating biography of the lovely Jane Goodall

i like all the burroughs. 'the ticket that exploded,' and 'nova express' i want to re-read.

i keep meaning to pick up that book william s. burroughs wrote about cats.

has anyone read this?

John Irving is fantastic. I have read all his novels and yes, 'Widow' is one of his best.

Hi Maryann,

Yes, the name is in the book as The Heaven Seventeen. There's a few other band names thrown about whilst Alex is in the record shop - can't remember if they've ever been adopted by any actual bands though.

Good. I was hoping that it wasn't creative license by the director.

I can see the scene when he is in the record shop clear as day in my mind.

No Glossary in this one!

And I haven't given up on it yet.

It's interesting, in an odd way..

Okay, I am convinced. I will pick it up again tonight.

I have just finished reading the excellent, hilarious and informative "A Year In the Merde". Yesterday I bought the follow-up, "Merde Actually".

I also recently got a book documenting the making of Jean Michel Jarre's 2006 "Water for Life" concert and a book of artwork by Michel Granger, who produced several of Jarre's album covers, including Oxygene, Equinoxe and Rendezvous.

I got quite a few books over Christmas and have stupidly started on 3 at once; 'Piece by Piece' by Paul Morley - this is his collected writings on Joy Division, 'Strange Attractor journal 3' - reportage on the unusual and the eccentric, and 'Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film' by Brian J. Robb...to be honest I've only read the Bladerunner and A Scanner Darkly chapters.

what's the title of that one?

I bought loads of books on my return to the homestead , the newly appointed European Capital of Excessive Lager Drinking . I started with the lightweight 99p "bargain" "Who ate all the pies ?" Mick Quinn's autobiog I think it must have been ghostwritten by a shellsuited moustachioed Harry Enfield He attempts to come across as the lovable Scouse rogue and fails miserably IMHO at least I'm looking forward to the Peter Robinson stuff tho
Hello there Rads if you are still around And Mr D Did you get to Fiattown in the end ?

I got into the Ian Rankin 'Rebus' novels a while back, so I've started reading those in the order they were published which has been good. Seeing how the character has developed over a series is something I've never really got into before as my reading has usually been a bit eclectic. Saying that, I also got Piers Morgan's diaries cheap in a second hand bookstore over Christmas, so I've just finished that. Despite my initial thoughts on what it would be like it was rather a good and entertaining read...

Hi Ivan!

Sorry not responded to your email yet - got back on Sunday to find BT have 'lost' our broadband Should be sorted later this week though - hope you're well.

Gazza

Hiya Gazza .No sweat I'm still getting over the disappointment of Saturday Let's hope it goes better at the Bridge tonight You lot playing tonight or tomorrow ? All being well sales of Blue hairdye will rocket next month !
Where did you go btw ?

moi, currently Midnight All Day by Hanif Kureishi (a collection of short stories)

Ivan: i got Fabio Volo's 'Un giorno in più' as a xmas prezzie and so felt obliged to read the thing: an interesting insight into the not-quite-middle-aged male Italian psyche - sexual scenarios oft to the fore yet sentimentalism prevails, and the females inevitably remain either mamma or nonna. Lots of New York place-name-dropping throughout.

Hi Ivan,

We've got the Woolwich Wanderers tomorrow - it's only been EIGHT years since we last beat them *sigh* - reall tough month ahead; in the next 4 weeks we've got the scum twice, the chavs, your lot and Man U!! Not exactly the best time to tell one of our strikers he can naff off either!

We always go to Berlin for New Year; beer, snow, beer - fantastic!

..."The Making of Water for Life"

..er could've guessed that I s'pose .. eeek a 'hefty' 25 quidder, but looks well slick.

Just picked up Richard Dawkins' Unweaving The Rainbow

Just finished another band biography by who other than Steve Malins. His book on Duran Duran is quite an interesting read and yes all of the band members are notorious....except Nick ! :p

Chris

To Cut A Long Story Short I've just finished another book. Tony Hadley does provide a very honest account of his life. Such a great voice and front man he's ideal for any band. It's sad in a way how bitter the end of Spandau Ballet was. IMHO Tony was the best voice for Gary's music. What I like about Tony is that despite all that legal battle he looks back at Spandau Ballet without any regrets and happy to have lived those magical moments. "So true funny how it seems..."

I wonder if Gary will ever release his autobiography. I could learn one or two tricks on the Jupiter-4. BTW I didn't know he married the girl on the Gold video. The lucky.....!

Chris

Sounds very interesting. Does he write much of the very early days? For me, the 'change' that occurred after the first album marked the end of Spandau. And yes, Tony has a great voice. I personally just did not like the change in direction (fully recognizing the great singles from that change)

Hi Maryann

He does talk about the early days but what I found missing was info on the technical side ie the instruments used and Richard James-Burgess production techniques. Tony naturally talks about how he recorded his vocals for the albums. He does talk fairly a lot about touring and surely the way they drank!

Chris

naturally....

Just finished reading Stephen Colbert's 'I Am America (And So Can You)'. Any fan of the show should pick this one up.


Note of interest: Thomas Dolby gets name-dropped in a chapter heading.

A mixture of complete trash (‘Air Babylon’) and some classics (‘The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy’ trilogy in five parts) this month for me.

I read the Tony Hadley book that has been mentioned here last year. I found it a refreshingly honest account of his life and was quite surprised to find I enjoyed it more than I expected to, possibly because it was obviously written with a good mixture of humour and bitter experience. The Duran book that was also mentioned I found much tougher going – and for too many reasons to detail here.

I also read recently the other Steve Malins book Depeche Mode: Black Celebration. This is a fine effort by Steve and got me going chapter after chapter. Nearly read it all in one day. It's his best along with the Gary Numan one Praying with the Aliens. The book is itself an expanded version on the Q edition of Depeche Mode: The Story of Electro-pop. At the end of the book you do say to yourself Depeche Mode are one of the most amazing and best bands ever. It's also an honest account of the highs and lows of a band. One thing I disagree is that both Martin and Fletch are better musicians than depicted here. It shows how modest both Martin and Fletch really are.

Next came a book, well a booklet in reality, by Peter Nash on The Human League.It covers the period up to the release of Don't you want me. It's a very old book and lacks the flow a writer like Steve Malins would have given to it. Anyhow, there are a number of anecdotes that kept me happy. Perhaps, The Human League now deserves a proper biography.

Finally, Messages a book on OMDwritten by Johnny Waller and Paul's brother Mike Humphreys. This is a nice account of a band as pioneering as The Human League. Both Paul and Andy were fine engineers and are better musicians than one might think. The book covers the period before the release of The Best of OMD and the Dreaming single. The most interesting parts are their very first tours and the setting up of The Gramphone Suite. It all brought back a lot of memories and is very relevant now as OMD are back on tour and with Dazzle Ships being re-released in its expanded form.

Next in line is Bowie's new one, Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town by Thomas Jerome Seabrook ....

Chris

Just finished Don DeLillo's Americana

'The Damned Utd' by David Peace

A fictionalised account of the very real 44 days in 1974 that Brian Clough spent as manager of 'Dirty' Leeds United – exacting revenge on previous manager Don Revie by trying to turn the team inside out. The book is written from the point of view of Clough – and reads like a dark, humorous work of Shakespeare – only very 70s, with very bleak northern landscapes replacing dithering danes and castles.

Top bloke was Cloughie !

Currently reading American Prometheus, an autobiography of J.R. Oppenheimer

It is providing great insight on a misunderstood man and a difficult and disturbing time in world politics

You got that right Chris! I was also very impressed with this book, having purchased it just a few weeks ago. I have to disagree with Steve's brief comment on Client though - the music for me is every bit as memorable as the image.

Just finished 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' by Jeff Lindsay, which was an excellent read.

That's the book that the Dexter TV series is based on I think.Watched Dexter on FX a while back.Its excellent.

Yes, it is, you're absolutely correct. A good friend of ours in the US switched us on to the TV series when we visited just before Christmas, but we were unaware the show was based on a book. There are two or three books in the set, so that's my next purchase I think.

I'm halfway though Fahrenheit 451.

It's quite different to the film... a very interesting read.

Great book; I havent read it in ages. Enjoy!

Yes, intriguing stuff .. every home with one of those big TV screens in the living rooms and no books...pah! science fiction!

White Noise: Don DeLillo

Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town by Thomas Jerome Seabrook . I must say this is a very entertaining book on David's most innovative period. From the year preceeding his move to Berlin, in Los Angeles where he recorded Station to Station, to a Chateaux outside Paris where he recorded The Idiot and Low. Finally, The Thin White Duke lands in Berlin, well in a Turkish Quarter known as Shoenberg with Iggy and Coco.

Low was mixed in Berlin and Heroes was wholly conceived in the German capital. David quickly transformed himself from a junkie to a genius...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RFPs9Uv7e8c

The synth on this video is a Steelphon S900. This sits on top of a Mellotron or could it be a Chamberlin? The grand piano is haunting. I wonder what make it is.

The book ends with Lodger which was not recorded in Berlin but in Switzerland and New York.

The legend lives on...

Chris

WOW! That's amazing footage! Cheers!

I just recently got a copy of The Idiot which I had not heard since my vinyl days. It rekindled my interest in the Iggy/David connection.

The book sounds fascinating, going to look for it.

I'm reading, for the third time, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Not as good as Slaughterhouse Five, The Sirens OF Titan or Breakfast Of Champions, but a fine read even third time round.

Ô¿Ô

I haven't read Vonnegut in years but now that you mentioned him, I believe it is time, yet again, for a re-read.

Ulla-Lena Lundberg's Linnunsiivin Siperiaan. Female ornithologists journeys to Siberia.

going slightly OT but I was intrigued by the Italian commentary in this clip and Wikipedia has this to say:

Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut

That ones very good M

Ice Nine !

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

Midwich Cuckoos and Day of the Triffids are great, but this is a rivetting read. Why this was never developed into a movie is beyond me!

H

Just finished reading Gary Numans book Praying To The Aliens. It hasn't taken me long just 5 months not being an avid reader. Saying that I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a great insight into his life.

Peter

I dont read many books either Peter, but yes its a very good read. It helped me understand how he developed into the songwriter we all know.

Yes, i know what you mean.......now'ish.

Just finished 'Something to Tell You' by Hanif Kureishi.

A piece of my heart Peter Robinson

Set in present day and 69 Foul goings on at smelly hippy concert in North Yorkshire ( the artists on stage and a brutal murder) all the usual suspects get a mention Zep , Roy Harper. Grateful Dead a Stevie Nicksless Fleetwood Mac and a Barrett led Floyd amongst others In the present day , musical journalist is murdered Robinson expertly pulls the strands together
Backdrop of Don Revie's Leeds,( however Robinson neglects to mention much to my annoyance , who won the league that season , )styles and radio programs I'd long forgotten about Great read
I'm glad I wasn't born 8 years or so earlier or I would have been caught up in that self indulgent waffle masquerading as music!

Anyway else au fait with Robinson's work ? I like the cat

Richard Dawkins: Unweaving The Rainbow

Systems Of Romance ?

I usually read three kinds of books: for my work, for my pleasure and 'spiritual / scientific' stuff.
So for now that is:
- MBT for Borderline Personality Disorder (work, obviously) by Bateman and Fonagy.
- The Rumours by Hugo Claus (famous Belgian writer).
- The Awakening of Intelligence by Krishnamurti.

Now reading Dawkins: The Selfish Gene

David Sheppard On Some Faraway Beach - the Life and Times of Brian Eno

Hi Martin,

I've yet to actually pick this up. Any immediate thoughts on it?

Garry

Fallen Dragon , by Peter F Hamilton .

More excellent BRITISH sci-fi.

Next up is " Judas Unchained ", by err, Peter F Hamilton . Part 2 of the "Commonwealth" series.

I love the scenario in that series. Stable wormhole technology, with an intergalactic railway network. Jump on a train, and you can be anywhere in the galaxy in hours.

Obviously not run by Branson, then..

I'm half way through Who on Earth is Tom Baker?

I'm only up to the third Chapter "Here he Comes" when Eno first 'touched down' in London.
Its a good read, very well crafted and with the authoritative air of a well-researched labour of love.
At times I wonder if Sheppard is a little verbose, but that's a minor point. He's been around Eno for many years and cites a lot of his own interviews with him.

Not hard to find - I walked into Waterstone's and picked one up off the shelf. It's also a superb looking book - one of those things that's nice to hold. I rarely read hardbacks, and even more rarely do I actually purchase one (Tainted Life being the last).

It smells good, and is a whole idiosyncratic 'experience'.

£20 very well worth investing.

The opening sentence is brilliant. Engaging from the start...

Many thanks Martin! I plan to pick it up and take it on holiday, and read it...

...On some faraway beach

Picked up " The Confederation Handbook " in a charry the other week, for a quid. It's a guide to the Universe of " The Night\'s Dawn ", by Peter Hamilton. Not essential, but good background.

The Kraftwerk story named "Neonlicht" (Neonlights).

I have spent a weekend dipping in and out of this book, quantum leaping from album to album and year to year. I am soon to try to listen to "Another Green World" again - for some reason it never clicked with me first time. Perhaps I was into my "no vocals" phase. I know the gorgeous title track of course.

Douglas Adams' Meaning of Liff.

Everybody should have a copy!

I'm REALLY enjoying this book. Somehow the flowery language is just right for it (even if you need a dictionary to understand some of Sheppard's phrasing!)

Lots of references to infuential 'others', and the whole FBWL project makes more sense now. It was germinating ten years before it took off.
I hadn't realised how established/celebrated/notorious Eno was at the time of his dabblings in the studio with Ultravox!, or how his experience with Roxy Music was really very short and incidental to all the other things he was involved with.

It seems that Foxx and Eno NOT working together has been rather against the odds - hard to believe it hasn't happened given their parallel careers

Crumbs - I haven't read that for ages - must dig it out...

At the moment I'm reading (actually re-reading) Swimming to Cambodia by Spalding Gray.

Looking forward to reading the Brian Eno biography when it arrives.

Rob

You won't be able to put it down, Rob.

For the third time Tom Doyle's biography on Billy MacKenzie . Reading this makes you want to meet the guy. Unfortunately, as we all know he sadly took his life. A lot of his fans probably felt if only "I could have been there to talk to him".

Years on the Associates and his solo recordings remain as entertaining as ever. His voice timeless.

The book is as entertaining as can be and the words that come out of your mouth are, "He truly was a maverick"

Now on to Eno's new biography On Some Far Away Beach.

Chris

Just started Running Dog by Don DeLillo

I am looking very much forward to reading "17" by Bill Drummond.

I have to admit, I'm reading Slash's autobiography - it's horrifying and hilarious in equal measures.

I'm reading Bowie in Berlin.

An excellent insight into Bowie's life and work in the late 70s as well as his work with Iggy at that time, and of course Eno.

Still On Some Faraway Beach

Nearly finished "Judas Unchained", part two of "Pandora's Star" by Peter F Hamilton.
He's tidying up the loose ends, the monster is dead, the baddies have been sorted and it looks like a happy ending. I'm waiting for the bombshell that will be lurking in the last few pages.

Just started Stripped, the Depeche Mode book

Tom Sharpe - The Grantchester Grind (Porterhouse)
Peter F Hamilton - The Confederation Handbook

Just started the Midge Ure book, and its about time too. Ive had it for over a year now.

Yesterday, I perchased a copy of Tim Powers Last Call and Earthquake Weather at an op-shop, just started reading Last Call last night.

Wouldn't mind getting The Drawing Of The Dark - also by Tim Powers - and any of his Steampunk-orientated works too.

I'm in magazine heaven I've got 4 copies of "New Scientist" , plus "Cycling Plus" , "Sci Fondo ( Italian Cross Country skiing mag ). December's "Uncut" and when "Skies are Grey" fanzine to get through

The Big Switch....Rewiring the World from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr

Ooh! Great suggestion. My father is a retired electrical engineer and I'm desperate to come up with a good idea for his Christmas gift, so please report how you like this when you've finished! It might be just the thing for him.

David Lynch: ’Catching the Big Fish’

A small book with snippets of thought and memories about his past work and history, some of this ground has been explored in other ways before in previous books that I’ve read, and of course its full of the useful Lynchian statements about how ‘wood is good’ and that the building of shed’s is very important to the creative process

The main message hinted at throughout this book is about Transcendental Meditation, which he has practiced for over 30 years, its a way of being that allows you to ‘empty the container’ as Lynch puts it, in order to receive fresh thoughts and insight into creativity and problem solving.

Hi Lele. I thoroughly enjoyed the book but if your father is interested in the technical side of things this book does not delve into that. The author (who I saw interviewed on the Colbert Report) has as his premise that computer utilities will replace how computers function today as electrical utilities replaced private generators. He runs through a history of electricity, then the computer industry (very interesting), and how computers have changed our lives and how we live our lives. All of this leading up to the coming of the World Wide Computer. So this book is part historical, part philosophical.

He wrote another book called 'Does IT Matter' which basically debunks the necessity and importance of corporate computer systems.

Thanks so much, Maryann! Based on your description I think you're right — my dad would probably be more interested in the technical aspects, so it might not be a good choice for him. However, it does sound like something I would enjoy far more than I initially thought, so I am going to add it to my reading list!

Spent last week near in Val de Claree Briancon France on a cross country skiing holiday The Chalet complex we stayed in had a mini library with books of local interest amongst which
LE ROMAN DE GASPARD DE LA MEIJE
http://livre.fnac.com/a1543821/Isabelle-Scheibli-Le-roman-de-Gaspard-de-la-Meije

Tells the story of how a simple peasant helps a rich young noble to get to the top of "La Meije" (without the aid of modern equipment and apparel) the Alps' last great unconquered peak Excellent stuff I fear it is only available in French but it's a truly exhilarating read

Don DeLillo: Libra

Musa Mayer: 'Night Studio'

(A memoir of her father, the American Painter Philip Guston)


Russell Brand: 'My Booky Wook'

(A memoir of a Foppish Victorian Essex lad)

"That Eno Book" has beaten me - a fascinating story no doubt, but its a really pretentious read...

Now I'm having a go at Wolfgang Flür's biography - I Was A robot"
Perceptive and sensitively written.
Delicate and humble style.

The passage where he describes Florian's apartment for the first time could be the setting for a scene from The Quiet Man...

David Sheppard had me going for months too. He uses the thesaurus to great effect, very highfalutin. It's a great insight to Eno, who is a great pioneer in electronic sound production. Worth the read.

Nick Awde's book on the Mellotron took me right across Christmas. Not only it's an essential book on the beloved British instrument but it gives a useful account of how pop music has evolved from the fifties to the sixties and right through the seventies with the instrument making its first popular appearance on Strawberry Fields Forever. The book consists of chapters dedicated to musicians who have used or have been involved with the instrument and who were interviewed for this book. King Crimson and The Moody Blues are fully featured here, with Andy McCluskey (OMD) amongst others making similar contributions.

Sadly there was no interview with Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr who have been proud owners and still are of the Mellotron. I've always wondered what was Ringo Starr doing backstage in the Ziggy Stardust video. I'm pretty sure that the Mellotron that Mike Garson used on the tour was one from his collection.

Bowie went on later to use a version of the Mellotron, the US Chamberlin. In actual fact, this was the original version, however it was reassembled in Birmingham, promoted and made famous in Britain. Unfortunately, he's not featured in the book.

All in all an enjoyable read.

Tony Visconti's autobiography is next...

Chris

The Target Book: A History of the Target "Doctor Who" Books

Fascinating, inspiring and exceptionally well illustrated. Chris Achillios' artwork used on many of the books is still outstanding today and has to be some of the strongest illustrated imagery associated with Doctor Who.

Have to agree there, I remember it well from long ago, and it's certainly a classic stylistic period.

I love the art by Chris Achilleos but I must mention Peter Brooks’ artwork, especially covers such as Terror of the Autons. I’ve still got a copy of Dr. Who and The Giant Robot signed by Tom Baker with cover art by Peter Brookes. I just love the comic-strip almost 'pop-art' feel to his covers.

I’m currently half way through Please Kill Me: Uncensored Oral History of [U.S.] Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain.

After that, I’ll be on The Rest Is Noise – Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross.

Currently reading nothing at all.
I've run out of reading material. Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I will be stuck in London, solo, for 4 days next week, with nothing to read. Damned training course.

Curses.

They certainly used a variety of talented artists for those iconic book covers. For me Andrew Skilleter's artwork was some of the best - more photo-realistic than Archillios' work I guess.

I recently bought a rare 'Davros and the Daleks' Skilleter print originally produced in the 80s) from Terry Molloy (Davros) at an event, so got him to sign it.

The most recent edition of MOJO.

One of the best ever - superb feature on Nick Cave, and an extensive bit on Eno too, as well as a cracking CD called Bad Seeds

Recently finished reading Tony Visconti's autobiography. The man that produced the two biggest acts of the seventies, Bowie and Bolan, with kind permission from ABBA. It's an enoyable read, always marvelled by his anecdotes and style.

A big thanks to this top producer.

Chris

Finished reading 'The Magus' by John Fowles, over the half term holiday.

Also nearly finished reading 'Spring Snow' by Yukio Mishima.

Looking forward to the new biography of Tom Waits

out in April

Another one? I haven't finished the last one yet! I must say I liked Barney Hoskyns' Mojo Heroes book on Arthur Lee so it looks like another thing to add to the list ...

Barney is good. He's one of the team behind rocksbackpages.

I joined this last year, so will be taking advantage of their discount offer

I've just finished Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot...

Peter F Hamilton : The Temporal Void .

It might have been a better idea to start with the first "Void" book first, but the library only had this one in...

The "commonwealth" universe has somehow been distorted out of all recognition. What the hell happened to the "Prime" threat? Who the hell is the "waterwalker"?
Still, I'm only 200 pages in, so a lot can happen yet..

What did you think of it?

Beckett isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love this play. Picked up on it at uni, and I've seen two or three presentations of it since.
I think the way things are not said and the silence and ambiguous storyline leaves the imagination to run wild.

I loved it!

Very unusual, very witty and a great character-based play. I'm still not sure what to conclude though!

I have to admit I'd never heard of it before, until the other night when I saw a preview on TV of the upcoming Haymarket Theatre production of it, starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

I thought it sounded interesting and within minutes, my wife had passed her copy of it to me!

That sounds about right!

I'm still reading Wolfgang Flür's excellent biography "I Was A Robot". Just read a great anecdote about Emil Schult filming the band in super-eight, having a picnic and playing frisbee in Central Park in 1973/4!!

Now there's a Tiny Colour Movie waiting to happen

Having been distracted by Godot for a few days, I'm now back on The Target Book: A History of the Target "Doctor Who" Books.

I'm sad to say I was slightly frustrated with Waiting for Godot. There's something about it that just doesn't 'work' for me. It feels a bit like Eleutheria in disguise, which is not what I was expecting.

For me, the text doesn't match the imagery, which is a first for a Samuel Beckett novel.

I bought "Waiting for Godot" some time ago. It still sits there, waiting for the right moment. And it WILL come.

Currently reading Anthony Storr "The Dynamics of Creation" and Alexander Waugh "Time" (From micro-seconds to millennia - a search for the right time). Have dipped in and out of both of these for a number of years.

In all fairness Blurred, I'm with you on this and actually thought the sequel Waiting For Despot was better. With a text that explores the murky and sometimes underhand world of middle eastern dictatorial regimes, I thought it made for fascinating reading and was well worth the long wait it took to get published.

All the best,


EG
x

Just finished Ubik by Philip.K.Dick - favourite author of all time (currently). A massively absorbing read.

Today its The Watchmen graphic novel & I've also just got hold of this months Record Collector magazine for the John Foxx & Ultravox interviews

That's on my shopping list for tomorrow!

I need to read more PKD - "Ubik" always sounded interesting.

Mentions in the interview of more things to come with Harold Budd & Ruben Garcia & also Theo Travis.

I've had to Wiki Theo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Travis


The others I think we already know about.

Theo played at the Harold Budd farewell gig in 2005. Oh to have been a fly on the wall at that after-show party!

I got this today too. Thanks to everyone for putting this together.

BUT...

It's a tad disappointing to see a Foxx-era question being used as a competition for tickets to the Return to Eden tour, and a Foxx-era photograph being used to promote the competition!

He also appears on Steve Jansen's album "Slope".

Painting with Sound: The Music and Life of Hans-Joachim Roedelius by fellow Gibraltar born Stephen Iliffe. A well presented book, very colourful and concise on the well celebrated (East)German avant-gardist.

Kraftwerk: I Was A Robot by Wolfgang Flur published by Sanctuary Encores. A very personal account by one of the four members of the classic line-up. The book makes the band very human but does not dilute in any way the mystic of the band as the quintessential electronic band. Which takes me to...

...Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music by Pascal Bussy . A well researched book and very straight to the point. It does promote the band very well and makes you look forward to their next release. It would be interesting to meet an artist like Ralph Hutter.

Chris

'The Meaning Of Night', by the sadly recently deceased Michael Cox. An excellent pastiche of a the Victorian mystery novel, set in the London of squalor, the stinking Thames, brothels and opium dens.

Having just finished watching the new DVD of the TV series, I'm reading John Christopher's The Tripods Trilogy.

I've just this morning finished "The White Mountains", so I'll be starting the second book, "The City of Gold and Lead" this evening.

I've just posted on the "Music " thread about my weekend in the early 70's My reading complimented it "THE DAMNED UNITED DAVID PEACE " Basically a dramatization of the legendary Mr Clough's ill fated 44 day tenure at Leeds United interspersed with his joint miracle working at Derby County alongside Peter Taylor An excellent piece of work .It took me back to my early adolescence , excellent stuff Brian Clough a true legend Even non football fans will admire him for inspiring the Vince Clark led Depeche Mode look

I have read that one several times. He is one of my favorites also.

Currently reading Don DeLillo: The Names

A beautiful occult thriller set in Swedish suburb. When you have read the book, you can now go and see the movie. Perfect translation of the book. Go see it, before Hollywood revamps the thing:

John Ajvide Lindqvist: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

I 2nd that.The film is excellent.

Following last week's superb edition of 'My Life in Verse' I am really enjoying another reading of TS Eliot and especially The Love Song of J Alfred Prufock

Look forward to the Four Quartets again soon.

I always think that revisiting a favourite book, film or album is like going back to a favourite Lost City. There are bits of an earlier you lying like dust on every page.

Poetry really is the essence of great literature.
It's not often I see a TV programme that I 'get' but this episode was really insightfula nd well-presented by Robert Webb.

He seems to like the same poets as me for the same reasons, and presented the case for e.e. cummings well too.
I wonder if there's an influence on John's work in the latter especially.
Another 'cut-up' practioner, as interested in the shape, layout and organisation of words as their meaning and juxtaposition:



Wonderful stuff

WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING : HARUKI MURAKAMI A great read indeed
sent to me by all round gentleman , scholar and my trusty domestique and Velomatic vice captain Radio Beach

A man of impeccable taste : John Foxx , footy , cycling ,running What more could someone ask for in life ?
Radler , we salute you

A truly wonderful short book Here's how the International Press reviewed it

"Wunderbar" Die Welt
"Formidablee" Le Monde
"Magnifico" Corriere gella Sera
"Friggin'Marvellous" Liverpool Echo
"Reet Gradely" Chorley Advertiser

Considering how little poetry I read these days, I guess my reply belongs in the What Are You Watching? thread. Anyway, I agree with you, what a fantastic programme that was - Robert Webb is a top geezer anyway of course. I tried Eliot once (or twice) - especially the Four Quartets. I have to say it didn't quite work for me back then but after this programme I will definitely give Thomas Stearns another go.

e. e. was another one I tried to understand but failed miserably. I am less a fan of the display of the words all over the page, or at least I was. Nice to see a mention of Larkin, the only poet I ever truly loved and "got".

I've recently found this book The Dictionary of Rock & Pop Names and it's pretty interesting - quite a few unknown facts about the origins of band and stage names etc. Ultravox, John, Midge, Kraftwerk and Mr.Numan get a mention!

The book covers bands old and new but as the author told me it's all covered quite briefly due to the harsh word count restrictions. He appeared on the BBC news a week or two ago but I only caught the last 10 seconds. I would reccommend it but the price seems to have gone up since I last looked .

Glad you liked it!

I'm starting/halfway through/put down and forgot where I left it;

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report by Iain Sinclair

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton (not as pretentious as it sounds!)

Baader-Meinhof Complex by Stefan Aust

Peter F Hamilton - The Dreaming Void [img]http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=cheapcarbooks-3-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0345496531[/img] and
William Gibson - Pattern Recognition [img]http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=cheapcarbooks-3-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0140266143[/img]

Two very different books. One is classic space-opera, the other is just weird.
The London zx-81 traders thing is odd, as is the "Charlie Don't Surf" thing..

Philip Larkin - Jill

Still on my Don DeLillo back catalogue kick: Now it is Mao II. I think there might be one more to go and I will have read all his novels.

Ultravox - 'Lament'.

Probably my last play of the physical disc, as next time will be the remaster.

um....reading? the inner sleeve perhaps?

I had too now. The remaster will not have lyrics included.
Thats my excuse anyway.

Finished Last Call by Tim Powers a few days ago, now started reading The Unborn by David Shobin.

Well I started John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman a couple of weeks ago - amazing amount of detail - but it was too heavy a book to take on my travels so bought and started Awaydays too.

How are you getting on with it? I found it a bit pedestrian as a novel but could see how it would work as one of those 'rights of passage' films.

I've always wanted to read a book that covered the modern history of Europe (yes, I'm ashamed to say I know very little european history), unfortunately many books that I came across were very academic and dry. However I finally found one for my hols that I'm just finishing - In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Dutch journalist Geert Mak. A travelogue of history and places, well written, warm, funny and not at all academic.

One of the 33 1/3 series Low by Hugo Wilcken. These guides to some classic albums are worth the money at GBP 6.99 (US$ 10.95) each. Although most of us who have read about this Bowie period would be very familiar with the contents. Yet, there's more detail of course and it is surely well written. I've just ordered another...Another Green World but the release date has been brought back to 2010!

By the way our John is featured on this book. On the subject of synths during the punk era, John is quoted "electronic stuff was considered something you couldn't touch." In addition, "It was too close to Pink Floyd, forbidden by John Lydon, declared ungood." Ultravox later went on to combine guitars and synths to great effect.

Chris

John Cheever - The Swimmer

Hideyuki Kikuchi - Vampire Hunter D: Volume I.

Liverpool Eric's (all the best clubs are downstairs everbody knows that...) by Jaki Florek and Paul Whelan. This is an A4 500 page book and has taken me half a year to finish reading it! It's got everything on the music scene in Liverpool from the skiffle days through the Stadium right to Eric's and Brady's. The book is not only about Liverpool and Wirral bands but also all the bands that played at Eric's.

Ultravox! and John Foxx gets briefly mentioned in the book. On 18 December 1976 Ultravox! and Eddie & The Hot Rods happened to have played the final Stadium gig. "They were like the next step, preparing you for punk".

Eric's used to get really packed when Ultravox with John played and were the most lucrative gigs for the club. However, as everybody knows Roger Eagle's enthusiasm for music made the club a music scene rather than a profitable business.

Ultravox were really popular, from "The stage was dark, a lone voice accompanied by acoustic guitar was singing I want to be a machine" to "Foxx used to put his heart and soul into his performance. One night one of the beams had to be repaired where John Foxx had gone mad and banged his head against the beam in the ceiling that went across the stage, there was plaster everywhere."

John when interviewed on Eric's "I remember Eric's, a lot of small episodes - if it was a film they'd be cut out bits that you'd keep somewhere, strung together and not in any sequence.....There was a girl who used to come and watch us, I was talking to her and she said "Don't forget me!" It was really moving. It really got to me....I put it into a song..."

The Quiet Men track gets a special mention, "A dancefloor classic...it's got that beat, but at the same time it's got this oddness, this otherworldliness..."

At times the book goes beyond Eric's and mentions that the elusive but pioneering Wirral band Dalek I Love You supported Ultravox with John at the Factory Night at the Russell Club in Manchester.

All in all, an entertaining and encyclopedic book on Eric's.

Chris

Well done on completing it Chris and thanks for the Foxx/Vox bits.

Great stuff Chris, thanks for sharing

I'm just reading some factuals online at the moment about the fascinating Novgorod Codex



The whole concepts of palimpsests appeals to me, although I can't begin to understand it and couldn't say why.
To me in many ways it is a way of representing John Foxx career - many layers and ideas overwriting and not quite obscuring one another.

Probably just this week's whim, but its nonetheless intriguing for that. This image itself reminds me very much of the "My Sex" exhibit at DNA, which was one of my favourite pieces

Finally managed to track down a slightly battered copy of Geoffrey Fletcher's The London Nobody Knows without selling a kidney (I already sold one for Manafon and I've been reliably informed by Dr. Johnnie Walker that to sell the other would be detrimental to my health...).

It's a beautiful slim volume written in 1962 by Fletcher (Slade art grad - so there's lovely line drawings throughout) as he wanders the back streets of east London, Islington etc.

I've been after it for a few years as there was a documentary made based on the book with James Mason back in the 60s that was shown alongside the Saint Etienne produced London documentary Finisterre back in 2005.

I'm sure Foxx has mentioned it around the release of My Lost City as an inspiration. The film of The London Nobody Knows (1967) is freely available (I think) on various archive sites, the book however, does go for silly money and really deserves a re-print.

1. Fawlty Towers By John Cleese and Connie Booth (Currently on "The Germans" episode - you'd never get away with this now..)
2. Hobby Electronics (magazine) December 1981, I think, the one with the "Drum Synthesiser" project in it, anyway.

Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange . It's an honest account of the face of the New Romatic movement. Boy was he in the limelight! Sadly, as countless other stars once the fame and money goes all that is left are drugs. It was an interesting read which I started and finished during the Christmas vacation.

Another Christmas read was Another Green World by Geeta Dayal . The book is an in-depth study of the album and like other 33 1/3 series books also talks about the album preceeding it and the one folllowing it. These books are smart, it can fit nicely in your pocket and you can read it anywhere.

Duran Duran: Notorious by Steve Malins. Read it for the second time and enojyed it more. I like the style used by Steve where the biopic develops nicely from beginnings to present day, all nicely condensed from exhaustive research. I look forward to Johns' book one day

The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance - The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age by Mark Prendergrast . Now, this is the most encyclopedic book that I've read in ages. Very thorough and noted down a few recommendations. An essential addition to my library of music related books.

Krautrock: Cosmic Theory and its Legacyby by Erik Davis, Michel Faber, David Keenan and Ken Hollings. A welcome surprise. At last a book on this music genre that's easily available. It's a perfect insight, very colourful too. A well presented document indeed.

Vintage Synthesizers: Groundbreaking Instruments and Pioneering Designers of Electric Music Synthesizers by Mark Vail. At times too technical but an essential account of these vintage musical instruments. There are even contributions by Bob Moog. It's such an exciting book that it has a health warning in that too much indulgence can lead to parting with your cash on any of these vintage instruments displayed in the book. This is true from experience!

Chris

Poetry.

I always find poetry fills the gaps when there are no books I feel inspired to read.
I'm as bad with books as I am with music - so often nothing I own is what I want to listen to.
Gormenghast has gone back on the shelf...

So I fall back into poetry.

At present, I'm trying to read Longfellow's classic Evangeline but finding it difficult to concentrate for long enough.
I enjoy reading Eliot, Manley Hopkins (but you have to be in the right mood) and - by way of contrast - Baudelaire and Rimbaud.

Les Fleurs du Mal is probably my favourite series

ROUGH RIDE Paul Kimmage

mid 80's Irish doméstique/gregario's and now Sunday Times sports journalist first person account of life on two wheels at that time and his own personal crusade against illicit substance abuse in cycling Talking of which , I've got a Milano/San Remo to get to with Mark Cavendish wearing the no 1 jersey ! Laters Les Foxxheads !!

In the middle of reading Peter Hook's book "How Not To Run A Club" and it really is a good read he has a brilliant sense of humour.

Gary

I've started reading again!

And I'm currently half way through John Christopher's The Death of Grass.

Yet another SF classic written in the 50s which seems all too close to reality today.

Crash - JG Ballard

I have to agree. I love the old stuff.

Yep!

I'm also currently waiting for the postman to deliver:

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
When the Tripods Came - John Christopher

And in June, Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End is being reprinted, so I'll get that one, on recommendation.

will re-read The Lotus Caves - John Christopher, when I can brave the everything that interests me always seems to be in the b****y attic-ladder

Couldn't resist it:
Dennis Lehane: Shutter Island
Andrew Laeddis ...

I remember reading that at school!

Just finished reading "BEHIND THE CURTAIN" given to me by that gentleman and scholar Mr R. Beach
An excellent read with some amazing insights and aperçus which perfectly capture the Zeitgeit and quintessence of football in what was lazily called the Soviet Bloc seperated from the rest of Europe by what famous dypsomaniac W Churchill called "The Iron Curtain . The scale of the skulduggery and shenighans which went on leaves the reader breathless
A great read indeed Many thanks Gazza

I Basso
: Guardian School of Journalism (failed)

Just started "The Day of the Triffids"

You probably failed The Granuiad School of Journalism due to a lack of Typos!

I’ve just finished Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos by Gavin Newsham and now I’m on Seize The Day by Saul Bellow

I'm reading Occupied City by David Peace (Red Riding Quartet, The Damned United ) at the moment - it's the second part of his Tokyo Trilogy.

Occupied City pieces together the investigation into the 1948 Teikoku Bank massacre, in which a man posing as a doctor from the occupying forces pretended to administer a dysentery vaccine to 16 bank employees, and instead poisoned them with cyanide, killing 12 instantly. Hirasawa Sadamichi was convicted of the killings but many in Japan believe he was innocent.

All the reports on Amazon say it's an experimental text and a difficult read but I'm zipping through it and enjoying it loads. I think the Amazon reviewers have clearly only ever read The Damned United and think that's his usual style - which it is, and isn't.

Parapsychology & The Nature Of Life by John L. Randall

http://www.clarebooks.co.uk/parapsycholo...777-7686-0.html

http://www.eagleman.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=34

40 'tiny colour movies' about the after=life and some wonderful Thought Experiments

Just finished reading Ringworld's Children, by Larry Niven. Probably the last part of the Ringworld saga.
Bloody Excellent, yah!
I must point out that Ringworld is Hard-SF, not fantasy, stet and has nothing to do with Hobbits..
Running futzy short of reading matter again, the only other book I have on the go is by Derren Brown.. Interesting..

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Bl@@dy good read actually. But I dread what the film is going to be like - out later this year.

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. I don't usually read translated works but I've made an exception this year with this and Stieg Larsson.

I was very much into hard-SF as a teen, without probably realising what constituted it! and found myself particularly drawn towards sci-fi books that involved future technology, exploration, but most of all, alien contact.

I’ve read a few of Niven’s ‘Known Space’ novels, and Ringworld with its vast engineered landscape and the mystery surrounding the origins of its long gone creators is my favourite book by him, though I imagine if I re-read it now then all the characters in it would probably appear very one-dimensional. I loved the Puppeteer’s and their whole conception, the secretive location of the home worlds travelling through space, and the Puppeteer's inherent ‘cowardice’ driving them to control everything around themselves, and the fact that it’s the insane ones who are the courageous ones. I read the sequel The Ringworld Engineers when it came out, but I’ve never read any of the other books in the series.

Regarding Niven, in the past I also read some of his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle: Footfall, and The Mote In God’s Eye, both are high action adventure sci-fi, each with fantastic aliens, and would no doubt make for great Hollywood movies.

In Footfall it’s the earth that’s being invaded by the herd-like elephantine Fithp who are on a holy mission, equiped with inherited technology which was left behind by an extinct species that were once the dominant race on their home planet. After the Fithp apparently subdue our resistance, and drop a large asteroid onto the earth causing worldwide damage, the USA secretly undertakes a plan to blast a few shuttles up into space on the back of some nuclear bombs, with the intention to fight the Fithp mothership. And in ‘Gods Eye it’s a first contact drama which unfolds between humans and all of the highly specialized subspecies of Moties that we encounter out in deep space.

Ahhh, it has been many years since I read Ringworld. I am currently reading Gene Wilder's autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger while I wait for the next book in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series, Against All Things Ending. There is never enough time to read all that you would like to. One day if I can ever retire...

The Unconsoled. Kazuo Ishiguro.

This one has me riveted. It flows like a dream with new story fragments building as the book goes on but ultimately all linked. I can't read it fast enough!

This guy really is a genius if this and the other book read recently (Never Let Me Go) are anything to go by.

Cheers Chris

They're both sat on the book shelf, staring at me accusingly. Really do need to get round to reading them soon!

Ian Brown biography 'Already In Me', surprised myself, I thought being from the Hacienda era I knew pretty much most things about the Stone Roses however I've just read that Howard Jones was their manager, I never knew that.

Half way through Nocturnes, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

This author fascinates me. "The Unconsoled" didn't conclude as I wanted it to, but the characters lived in my head for a very long time after I finished it. Similarly, the short stories within Nocturnes don't conclude as I expect, but there is so much colour in the text, that I really get rivetted to the stories.

Roll on final half!

Finished Nocturnes - was OK (but "Never Let Me Go" is still the best by far - wife and mother in-law have read the Japanese transalation and confirm it is GOOD!), but I'm discovering a lack of conclusions in Ishiguro's work. It doesn't detract from them as they are SO illustratively written, but takes a while to get used to. As per previous post, the characters are still in my head (and very active) long after I finish the book.

Now have "Remains Of The Day" to read, need to set some reading time!!! I haven't seen the film yet, so have an uncoloured mind going in!

Now have "Remains Of The Day" to read, need to set some reading time!!! I haven't seen the film yet, so have an uncoloured mind going in! [/QB][/QUOTE]

That's the best way Chris.
I read 'Shutter Island' AFTER I saw the movie.
Couldn't get Leonardo out of my mind!

I read the book after seeing the film. I wouldn't normally rave about a Merchant Ivory production but the film was so beautifully sad, and Hopkins gave such a fantastic restrained performance, I couldn't get it out of my mind, I just had to go read the original work. Both are great.

Presently reading Frankie Boyle: My Sh!t Life So Far.

I’m really enjoying this one, I was on a train last week reading some of it, and I was honestly trying to not laugh out loud, I had to contort my face. I don’t know if its because I’m Glaswegian myself, but I just love his slightly droll, self-depricating, and casually cynical style, Sometimes he hovers over crossing the line in his choice of topics, but he’s got a knack for giving you comedy that can be at one moment straight forward talk, and the next it’s a really cheeky remark or observation.


Read a few books during the summer months, nothing too taxing though as my tiny brain can’t take heavy volumes of chapters or densely packed wordy tomes, so it was a couple of Ben Elton’s books and one of Douglas Coupland’s. I’ve read a lot of books by both authors over the years, almost but not quite everything, and not always in published order.

Douglas Coupland: Generation A.

Started off really well, It did hold my interest, and was an easy read, but when I got to the last third of the book I have to admit that I started losing interest. It’s the first book by him that I’ve not finished reading. Set in the near future it’s a tale that brings together five youthful characters from around the globe, all of whom speak in a typical world-weary, world-wise, consumer savvy style that is distinctively Coupland. In some ways though I was less convinced in this story by this than I’ve ever been in earlier works, and here I felt that the knowing attitude that was similarly prevalent in each of the characters felt unconvincing in being spread amongst them. I’d have preferred it if Coupland had kept their words as his voice alone throughout the book, rather than give them to the entire cast in his story, or maybe that was his point, the fact that these modern attitudes are now commonplace amongst the new generations due to the accessibility of global media.

What brings these five people together is that each is unexpectedly stung by a bee, this is in a world where we have started the destruction of our ecosystem, apparently beyond repair, and the return or existence of bees once again is seen as something of a miracle. The mystery in the story is not only how they have managed to return, but why they choose to seemingly seek out and sting only these five particular people. This event leads to a great deal of Coupland’s usual observations about modern day life as seen through the eyes of his media obsessed and internet affected characters.

Having been spirited away early in the story after being stung, to interrogation separately at a secret government facility, they are ultimately brought together for an undisclosed purpose, and later on in the book (and this is where I started to drift away) entire chapters are given over to imaginative story-telling produced by each of them whilst they remain under observation on a remote island.


Ben Elton: Blind Faith.

Enjoyed this one, it was something of a sci-fi at heart. It presents a disturbing and reasonably plausible world of society control through the media of home-entertainment and the internet, where privacy is outlawed, and conforming through liberal pleasures is encouraged, with total explicitness about ones life being not only expected, but to do otherwise is a crime.
For most of the book it’s a though-provoking and entertaining story where the parallels with Orwell’s 1984 are fairly obvious, but this is a fascist state that’s projected through a post consumer society, a modern world that has been reduced to a fabricated medieval mind-set due to global warming, where disease and fear are used as sticks to beat us with by the controlling powers, science is outlawed, and a new evangelical religion is at the helm.

The last few chapters took me by surprise, as just like with Winston Smith you knew it had to end badly, you hoped it wouldn’t, but it does, and the spectre of the Spanish Inquisition is alive and well at the heart of this tale.


Chart Throb.

A witty parody of X-Factor, and is right up Ben Eltons street with its celebrity ego’s and fragile vanities writ large, and I got quite a few laughs out of it. Calvin Simms (Simon Cowell) is expectedly smug, more smug, and smug again, and is something of a cruel user within his own little kingdom. Rodney Root (Louis Walsh) is the has-been under-dog minor celeb, not as powerfull as he’d like to think he is, and is basically Calvins tea-boy. Beryl Blenheim is a transexual mother (former father) with her own reality TV show The Blenheims, she’s a millionare ex-rocker and very bitchy, and she likes to present herself as a typical ordinary home-maker. Any similarity to Sharon Osbourne pretending to shop down at ASDA is a complete co-incidence, not.

I just finished reading Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End followed by Joe Haldeman's The Forever War - both excellent and truly epic, visionary books.

I'm now 3/4 through Brave New World. Interesting, though different to what I was expecting.

Amongst others LEFT FIELD GRAEME LE SAUX'S biography (Faute de mieux cos PAT NEVIN* never brought one out or if he has I'm not aware of) Le Saux is erroneously perceived as a footballing Wittgenstein as he occasionally reads The Grauniad and has an A Level in Biology
On a serious note regarding false perception , he was a victim of homophobia both from his teammates and the terraces which he goes into in detail and dealt with admirably
All in all it comes over as a flat read and I can't really take to the him The most interesting thing is the parlous state Chelsea were in before Abramovic started buying success for them
Next up a geriatric (By his own admission) Eric Newby and his equally geriatric wife going round Ireland on their bikes Good so far (ROUND IRELAND IN LOW GEAR)
*Erudite Scottish Winger who amongst others played for Everton and some cowboy outfit from West London whose name escapes me)He listened to THE THE/My Bloody VALENTINE on his Walkman while his team mates were listening to LOOFA VAN DROSS ,SIMPLY RED AND RICK ASTLEY

OK, "Remains Of The Day" was definitely a good read and recommended. I'd also recommend "When We Were Orphans". Probably the most conventional novel from Ishiguro, but still a very unique style. Having read that, I now feel compelled to read "Empire Of The Sun" - Shanghai connection? Haven't seen that film either.

Interested that I felt a strong similarity between the lead male characters in "The Unconsoled" and "When We Were Orphans".

Finished the aforementioned Huxley classic. A bit disappointing.

Now reading Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick.

Interesting read thus far... very Twilight Zone.

Now reading Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man.

And it's brilliant! Full of twists. Though strangely, I bought it a few years ago and never got very far with it; couldn't get into it. Things change I guess...

I posted that back in September, I still think he’s a comedy genius, but after reading that book I really didn't enjoy watching his 2010 TV show Tramadol Nights - the one that garnered itself a lot of criticism for its content, least of all his joke about silicone-tabloid-hog Katie Price, a laugh he apparently made at the expense of her disabled son. I never saw that particular episode, but as regards the show, well, to use a famous Glaswegian expression, ‘it wus jus Diabolical’ - a mix of his usual scary stand-up being recycled yet again, but more shocking than that was the cringe-making, dire, unfunny sketches, mostly about lame drug-themed garbage, and bizarrely, AIDS.
Comedians book versus comedians TV series - is the Pen mightier than the Show? Yes it was for me, so think I’ll stick to reading thanks Frankie…


Been reading a few books recently, though the one I’m commenting on here is so small I should be disqualified for mentioning it.

Paul Arden: Its Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want To Be

127 pages and lots of large type included, in fact, on some pages there’s just a picture or a big caption, yay!
Okay, I confess I picked this up from the library just to read on the bus, thinking that it looked amusing. But as soon as I started flicking through it I became immediately self-conscious about other passengers looking over my shoulder at the pages, as I read words set out in large bold large text that said:

YOU CAN ACHIEVE THE UNACHIEVABLE.

’I WANT TO BE AS FAMOUS AS PERSIL AUTOMATIC’ - Victoria Beckham.

DON’T LOOK FOR THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY. THE ONE YOU HAVE IN HAND IS THE OPPORTUNITY.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF SILLY IDEAS. - Engelbert Humperdinct A very silly name, but he’s nobody’s fool.

This little handbook contains snippets of the wisdom of Paul Arden, advertising guru, ex-Saatchi & Saatchi-man, devils general, and eccentric free-thinker. I didn’t know anything about him (and this book is a worlds best seller!) or appreciated just how revolutionary he was until I wiki-ed him (as Jonathan Barnbrook rolls his eyes skyward!).
It’s a quirky easy read, and one of those ‘guides’ that can be applied to many other different situations in life rather than just to the world of mad bad ad-men. It inspired me to learn more about its author, about how he once gave a lecture with a hired naked man standing next to him throughout the talk. Nobody remembered much of what Arden said, but they never forgot the sight, I challenge our John to do that at his next ‘liquid-man and mini-me' secret speech given to art students, or indeed if any of our forum members are presently job-hunting then why not attend your interview in the nude, you may not get the job, but I’m sure the panel will applaud your breathtaking confidence.

Paul Arden also said something that only those of a particular kind of wisdom say, and are usually dismissed as being crazy, after 9/11 - (and I stress here that I’m not making any political point by mentioning this) - he suggested that rather than seeking revenge or going to war (as did then happen) that we instead build a Mosque on the spot where the towers once stood. Its interesting that just last year there has been a controversy about something quite related, but in Arden’s case he was simply saying that we don’t do what people assume, but rather confound human expectation in the most unexpected manner, how amazing would it be if we could all live a little bit more like that.

Currently reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol.
It's just the same as Da Vinci and Angels.
Before that I re-read Niven's whole Ringworld saga.. MORE LIKE IT!

Dave Hickey: Air Guitar

The conversational writing style and lively tone of this book pulled me into reading its memoir of essays by American art and culture critic Dave Hickey, (published in the 90’s). A few chapters didn’t appeal to me, but I found most of the book really interesting, particularly his childhood recollections and his popular culture observations. He’s an author who doesn’t lock you out with the usual type of critics ‘learned opinion’, and I was encouraged on reading the book to seek out and learn more about the man himself.

Hickey has a talent for making connections in culture, and taking leaps from the highbrow to the lowbrow and from the elitist to the populist, en-route finding relevance as he considers his subjects to be of the extraordinary rather than of the obvious. Whether its apprising and understanding the politics of the art market by exemplifying it with his previous obsession with building and selling custom cars in his youth, or in praising the virtues of the appeal of a magic show with its tigers and bouffant-haired entertainers, his essays aim to show that our deep rooted cultural dreams are illuminated within diverse avenues.

As a previous resident of Las Vegas he wrote about the deeper meaning of the Mirage Hotel stage show extravaganza with Magician and Tiger-Tamer duo Siegfried and Roy, (no longer playing since 2003 due to Montecore the tiger taking a fixated interest in a female audience members big hairdo, resulting in Roy being unintentionally and severely injured by the tiger). In the ‘Lost Boys’ Hickey paints a picture of the two German cabin boys whose perfect idea of combining magic with tigers saw them spectacularly elevated into twin cat-faced man-boys living out the success of the American Dream, (still today their bronze effigy with tiger stands sphinx-like at the entrance to the Mirage). He describes their show as the pinnacle of the ‘saturnalia’ celebration that is Las Vegas, a staged mythological fantasy of death and resurrection. At its climax a tiger emerges from out of a spinning mirror ball bombarded with lasers, the tiger leaps on top of the ball, then Roy climbs onto the tiger, and ball, tiger, and man go floating off up into a laser-dazzled darkness, while the music of the Siegfried & Roy theme plays out, sung by Michael Jackson…


Born in 1939, there’s a particular occasion in post-war Texas that stands out for Hickey, when as a child of eight or nine years old his father took him to a friend’s house for a jam session with fellow Jazz musicians. As he recounts that time and considers it from the perspective of today - or taken at face value - Hickey concedes that this was a meeting involving people of different cultures which could nowadays be insignificantly summed up, or even dismissed as merely: ‘a gathering consisting of four Irish-Americans, a Latino, two African-Americans, and a German Jewess, all of whom represented an international underclass of that time’. But for Hickey it was an everyday moment of ‘ordinary eccentric citizens coming together, to play some extraordinary music in a little house on the edge of town’, It has remained in his memory as the ‘best concrete emblem’ he has of ‘America as a successful society’, an enjoyable afternoon of a happy jamming session where every member was integral to the composition of the music, and each one got to play their ‘solo’.


When contemplating the answer to being asked does he have any religion, he usually responds with “not yet”, “but there are things I do religiously”. In the essay entitled: 'The Little Church Of Perry Mason' he writes about being an adult without a day job, home alone and addicted to watching daytime reruns on television of the fictional defense lawyer Perry Mason - a TV show that becomes linked with the experience of being out of work for Hickey.

Realising that whatever we spend a great deal of our mind and time on, that thing can gradually become a kind of ‘church’, in Hickey’s case, the Perry Mason show became the sacrament in ‘the Church of Unemployment’, with Perry and his two onscreen colleague’s constituting a trinity of the ‘Professional Family’ filling the vacuum left by the schism of love and work.
Hickey also had an addiction to the Mission Impossible TV show, which he identified as being ‘the Church of the Small Business Guy’, where for one hour, every week, there was a task to be performed, and by God those guys got it done!

(As a previous shift-worker myself, I once spent devotion in the ‘Church of Jeremy Kyle’, or, the ‘Church of putting Societies Miscreants to rights’ on mornings, and with the double repeat on ITV2 afternoons, and then it became the ‘Church of Star Trek Voyager’, or, the ‘Church of putting the Galaxies Aliens to rights’ on SKY afternoons. But these days I’m happy to report now that all that has been replaced with the online ‘Church of Metamatic’ )

Since I am a sucker for old stuff and I was there anyway I got me the huge and wonderful "Lost London 1870-1945" book.
Long gone streets. Sometimes empty, or suggesting they are. Sometimes just the shadow of a person here and there. Or a whole street full of people staring at you because of the novelty which was called 'camera'.
Great book

I love photographs like that of a town or city you know in a modern sense, and being presented with an image of how it once looked, with horse-drawn carriages or trams on the road and people bustling about on the streets.

'Strange Fascination - David Bowie the definitive story'
David Buckley

Continuing the Bowie theme, I'm reading Walter Tevis' The Man Who Fell to Earth.

I've taken a break in the Bowie biog (end of Part 1) to read
Joe Dunthorne's "Submarine" which I believe has also been made into a film.

I'm reading Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert.

Just over halfway through - and what a fantastic read thus far. Dark, creepy, unsettling and mysterious. You just know there's something unpleasant going on under the surface. Three of the book's (seemingly) main characters have already met their demise.

Wade Allison's Radiation and Reason.
As you can imagine, there is a lot of paranoia around the incident in Fukushima. When I look at the science, I feel OK, when I read news reports I think I must be off the geiger counter. I've always suspected that our upbringing during (and post) the cold war with the potential treat of nuclear holocaust has tinted our view, and this book supports that. It's also targetted at non-specialist folk like me so we can really get the picture. Probably no-one interested in the book back in the UK!

November issue of "Computer Music" magazine. Being a musician with a modest computer-based studio, I'm a bit of synth//computer music nerd 8-)

Or rather, what am I not able to fully read.

As per another thread I’ve been listening to New Orleans band Belong, I decided to see if they might be touring our shores, a link let me to a list of their interests and a book about ‘dream machines’ was mentioned. A quick google led me to ‘Chapel Of Extreme Experience, A Short History Of The Dream Machine’, written by John Geiger when he was researching a biography of Beat writer and painter Brion Gysin:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chapel-Extreme-E...2217&sr=1-1

I’d like to read this book (but not at that price!), however I found a very intriguing article called Mind Games –

“From the beginning, Gysin had big plans for the Dream Machine. He believed his brainchild could one day replace the television. As Geiger puts it, "Why have a preprogrammed box in your living room when you could actually just sit there and make your own movies?"

“The idea for the machine was born one afternoon in 1958, when Gysin closed his eyes as his bus passed an avenue of trees and found himself transported out of time by a "transcendental storm of color visions." Hungry to relive the experience, Gysin contacted his friend and collaborator William Burroughs, whose mathematician boyfriend, Ian Sommerville, then built what was the first Dream Machine—a cardboard cylinder with cutout slots, lit by a 100-watt bulb suspended inside, all of which sat on a turntable revolving at 78rpm. It wasn't elaborate, but it worked. Immediate advocates included Allen Ginsberg, who, as Geiger recounts, told Timothy Leary that the Dream Machine enabled him to see "jeweled biblical designs and landscapes without taking chemicals."

Mind Games:

http://www.johngeiger.net/news4.html

I'm nothing if not monothematic , as befits my "illustrious" user name
THE DEATH OF MARCO PANTANI MATT RENDELL
THE BIOGRAPHY CHRIS HOY

I'm reading Jane Austen

YES! ME! JANE AUSTEN!

And I'm enjoying it! So there! Nyah!

Nice One Gazza!

Which book? Have read 9and enjoyed) qute a bit myself

I've just started reading a collection of Manley-Hopkins poetry...

Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London’s Lost Artist by Phil Baker

Daniel Gothard - Relax & Swing

Hiya Martin,

I'm reading Persuasion in tandem with Jane Austen by Carol Shields

Mark Prendergast - The Ambient Century (from mahler to moby)

Nice tip Scott - cheers. Looks good.

http://www.ambientcentury.co.uk/
The website is kind of retro already!

I recognise the author as one of the main interviwees in the Krautrock/Kraftwerk documentary "KW and the Electronic Revolution". I might be wrong.

It's a great book Mark. Here's the amazon review. Well worth tracking down.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ambient-Century-...9841&sr=1-1

One of the thngs I want to do this year was read more.

Just finished Mark Cocker's inspirational prose poem 'Crow Country' about a man's dedication to the observational science of roosting behaviour in crows...

Trust me, it's engaging and uplifting.

Now I hve moved on to Bill oddie's autobiography One Flew Into the Cuckoo's Egg. Not sure I am at all comfortable with his narrative style, but there's an interesting story to tell and it will be intensely personal.

This will hardly come as a surprise given my proclivities but
"PUT ME BACK ON MY BIKE " IN SEARCH OF TOM SIMPSON* W FOTHERINGHAM "
and by the same author HALF MAN HALF BIKE * THE EDDIE MERCKX STORY "
Both birthday presents from last week
*Alas no foreward by Nigel of Half Man Half Biscuit

*great british Cyclist of the 60's who died on Mount Ventoux during a Tour de France stage in 1967 The subsequent post mortem revealed that his body contained so many illicit substances that they would have finished of Lou Reed , Keith Richard and that ugly bloke out of Aerosmith whose name I can't remember combined in one fell swoop !

I am reading Bernie Krause's "The great animal orchestra". A fascinating must to anyone who records nature voices, Krause's got huge experience. Daily animal voices are not random but organised orchestra, and natural voices inspired the first musicians millenniums ago.

Henning Mankell "Der Feind in dem Schatten" Picked it up in Frankfurt Airport wating for my conncting flight on my way to the bike race in Dublin last month It all revolves around Mankell's fictional detective Inspector Kurt Wallander based in Ystad near Malmo in Southern Sweden Obviously I can't read Swedish so I' have to make do with German as I've never come across any English translations Very good Wallander comes across as very human This is supposedly the last in the series It all revolves around espionage and counter Espionage in the 80's when Sweden was supposedly neutral and not involved in The Cold War The book suggests this was not the case I found it excellent

True to form and quite predictably I have now moved on to "HALF MAN HALF BIKE EDDIE MERCKX " again by W Fotheringham A chronical of the life and times of arguably the best cyclist of modern times